On the outside, The Condemned is what you would expect of a documentary about a prison: bad food, unsympathetic guards, tearful family reunions, letters from Lonely Hearts, and a lot of tattoos. But Federal Penal Colony 56, buried deep in the wilderness of Russia, contains so much more.

The way that trans people are housed in detention and correctional settings has come to attention recently, after British comedian Avery Edison was detained by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) for having previously overstayed her visa — and then she was initially sent to a mens’ prison while the issue was sorted out. After . . . → Read More: Dented Blue Mercedes: “Protective” Custody

The way that trans people are housed in detention and correctional settings has come to attention recently, after British comedian Avery Edison was detained by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) for having previously overstayed her visa — and then she was initially sent to a mens’ prison while the issue was sorted out. After . . . → Read More: Dented Blue Mercedes: “Protective” Custody

Swiss prisons have a marijuana problem and Swiss prison guards like it that way.

A recent study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy estimates that 50 to 80 percent of inmates in Swiss prisons use marijuana. Prison staff told researchers they found marijuana to be a relatively safe drug and that cracking down on . . . → Read More: The Disaffected Lib: Swiss Inmates Going to Pot

Former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr has been transferred to the maximum-security Edmonton Institution in Alberta after spending months in solitary confinement at Millhaven penitentiary in Ontario, where a fellow inmate once threatened his life.

The post Omar Khadr moved to Edmonton prison after months in solitary confinement appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.

An excerpt from Loic Wacquant’s Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity (Duke University Press 2009), pages 59-73:

The Gaols of the Subproletariat: An Experimental Verification

It suffices, to discern the extrapenological functions served by the outsized extension of the US carceral apparatus even as crime plummeted for over a . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: Snapshot of Genocide

Join the Prisoner Correspondence Project for a reading from Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex and conversation with two California-based queer anti-prison activists. What are some of the uses and limits of a queer framework in anti-prison organizing? What does it mean for queers to “act local” as . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: Mtl: Captive Genders Discussion and Letter-Writing

This is an update about Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, a prisoner activist and intellectual who is currently in a dire situation in Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon. As was reported last week, Rashid has been in the midst of a health crisis for almost a month now, which has included periods of severe disorientation. . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: Kevin Rashid Johnson and Oregon’s Isolation Torture Unit

Why were you outraged over Russia locking up Pussy Riot but ambivalent over America bringing its full weight down on open access activist Aaron Swartz? Simple, because hating a Russian government is easier than improving your own.

In this interview, New Afrikan Communist Sanyika Shakur discusses his personal social development, his time in Pelican Bay-SHU, the 2011 California prisoners’ hunger strikes, the effects of long-term isolation torture, New Afrikan nationalism, communism, and the struggle against gender oppression.

The latest issue of Rock is out; this is a newsletter produced by former political prisoner Ed Mead with content for and by prisoners at Pelican Bay.

Pelican Bay’s SHU is an isolation torture unit where people spend years and even decades in solitary confinement, deprived of all human contact. A couple of years . . . → Read More: Sketchy Thoughts: Rock Vol.2 #2

Last week I attended the Toronto theatrical premiere of Herman’s House, a thought-provoking documentary written and directed by Angad Singh Bhalla. This Canadian film tells the story of an artistic collaboration between Jackie Sumell and Herman Wallace. Sumell is a multidisciplinary artist from New York. Wallace is a Black Panther from Louisiana who has been […] . . . → Read More: Art Threat: The imagination, art, and activism of Herman’s House

Prisoners in Brazil may be able to shorten their stay in jail by reading and writing. It’s only 48 days but it can make a difference, the prisoners need to read from a collection of philosophy, science, literature, or the classics then reflect on them in a submitted paper.

Men at Red Onion State Prison in Virginia are not only refusing meals but also refusing showers and refusing recreation time. We must support these courageous comrades who are actively revolting against the incarceration nation. Go to http://virginiaprisonstrike.blogspot.com and take action!

News of a death in Corcoran State Prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit is emerging as an underreported hunger strike in the prison’s ASU comes to a close. Inmates in the ASU are held in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement. Many have been in isolation for years and even decades.

According to Correctional Services Canada, the average annual cost of keeping someone in a federal prison in Canada in 2004-2005 was $88,067 . Now compare that to the annual amount spent per student in Canada during the same time period of $8726 including operating budgets and salaries.

First off I’d like to offer kudos to Howard Sapers, the Correctional Investigator of Canada, a true gem within our civil service .In his latest report Sapers highlights the aging of our prison population and the special challenges faced by both the effected inmates and their jailers The older offender is often a neglected, but significant and growing, segment of the offender population. Today, . . . → Read More: Canada’s aging prison population

Canada’s top legal group, the Canadian Bar Association, was not exactly kind to Harper’s approach to crime in its recent annual conference. It identified many issues from overcrowding to the rates of mentally ill in the prison system. But the issue tha… . . . → Read More: Progressive Proselytizing: Mandatory Sentences Really Mean Mandatory

Prison is not supposed to be a walk in the beach. I understand that. People that commit offences need to be consequenced for their transgressions against what society deems to be the proper set of standards. Consequences should not include psychological torture, self-mutilation and degradation. “Supermax prisoners’ daily lives are chock full of alienating and […] . . . → Read More: Dead Wild Roses: The Spawn of Guantanamo Bay – SuperMax Prison Hell